The Buffy Comic Project: "Love Sick Blues"

Buffy the Vampire Slayer # 14

Dark Horse (Volume 1, 1998-2003)

Creators: Andi Watson (writer), Cliff Richards (penciller), Joe Pimental (inker)

Setting: Season Three

T.V. Character Appearances: Buffy, Angel, Spike, Drusilla, Willow, Xander, Oz, Giles, Cordelia

Major Original Characters: Todd Dahl (singer), Selke (vampire), Dr. Flitter (Selke's aide)

Summary: After Buffy saves him from a vampire attack, dooshbag musician Todd Dahl falls madly in love with her. He begins following her around, sending her gifts, etc., much to Buffy's dismay. Her problem is conveniently solved, however, when some of Selke's super-charged vampire cronies kill Todd. Guilt ensues. Meanwhile, Spike and Drusilla have come to town to watch the Selke-Buffy fight play itself out. And as for Selke, she has her pet doctor perform an occult ritual to create an evil duplicate of Buffy; but the strange brew doesn't ferment and all that happens is a puddle of slime.

Review: It's great to see Spike and Dru make their first appearance in the main Buffy book, even if they don't do a lot. Selke as a recurring villain still isn't particularly interesting, nor is there a sense that the series is building towards a big confrontation. Dialogue and characterization-wise, the Scoobies seem well handled, but the trademark Joss Whedon wit is missing. In other words, it's all kinda okay without ever being awesome.

Notes

* It's never really explained why Dr. Flitter's evil-Buffy experiment fails.

* It looks like Spike & Dru try to poison the special blood Selke uses to make herself and minions stronger.

* Not sure what to think about the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Collectible Bears." On the one hand, they're kinda cute. On the other, they're perfectly generic and very much in the vein of "slap any old logo on a fuzzy bear and wait for collectors to snap them up."

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